ArchiveJuly 2017

Flooded Toronto Islands are threatened by rising water levels and more floods in Toronto on Friday, May 19, 2017. The waterlogged Toronto Islands will finally reopen to the public on July 31. It’s come to my attention that there are people who have lived in or around Toronto for a long time but have never visited Toronto Island. Or maybe they only visited once or twice, as kids, to ride the...

Cyclists aren't the ones in need of remedial training, Elliott argues. I’ll admit it: nobody ever taught me how to drive in the city. Growing up in suburban Oakville, I learned to drive on quiet residential streets mostly devoid of other traffic and sometimes devoid of sidewalks. At school, we shared tips on which testing centres offered the simplest road tests – people ventured north to...

Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti is arguing that downtown is subsidized by the suburbs. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti thinks Toronto’s downtown is subsidized by the suburbs. He’s wrong wrong wrong. Mammoliti, who represents Ward 7 in Etobicoke, made the claim last week as part of his efforts to fight an approved plan to redraw the city’s ward boundaries and add three new wards in the downtown core to...

Kyle Ashley, a.k.a. Twitter bike cop, has won the support of cyclists across Toronto in his crackdown on people who park vehicles in bike lanes. To be a truly great city for cycling, Toronto needs three things: a lot of cyclists, a network of separated bike lanes and constant enforcement to keep cars out of those lanes. The city has the first thing in spades and is getting better at the second –...

Construction cranes feature on the skyline in Toronto on Wednesday, July 5, 2017. In his latest column, Metro Halifax columnist Tristan Cleveland explains why his Maritime city has the edge on Toronto. As Metro’s designated defender of the 6ix, I’ve got two words for him: little flags. Yeah, flags. If you aren’t aware, Halifax’s approach to pedestrian safety has included installing baskets with...

The Toronto Port Lands make up an area roughly the size of downtown. Three days before the Canada 150 fireworks, I caught a glimpse of our country’s future. It happened on the Toronto waterfront last Wednesday. There, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Kathleen Wynne and Mayor John Tory arrived together on a boat – which, admittedly, seemed kind of unnecessary. Once on dry land, however, they...